UNDP Is Important For The Poor, and Therefore Must Be
Made Transparent
Tenth Installment in Inner City Press' Ongoing UNDP
Series, Reported by Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- The UN
Development Program, a $5 billion agency whose Administrator Kemal Dervis has
not held a press conference in UN Headquarters for over 14 months, on December 8
issued a
press release attacking
Inner City Press by name. The same day, UNDP informed Inner City Press that it
would no longer respond to any requests for comments about seeming violations of
UN recruitment, hiring and promotion rules, and that it does not disclose to the
press or to the public its internal audits.
Given that it appears, at least for the
short term, that UNDP will not be providing even this basic information, despite
its status as an international agency funded by the publics of member states,
Inner City Press has decided to recapitulate the reasons that it began this
series about UNDP on November 29, and why it will continue. This brief overview
inevitably may mention UNDP's press release. But since UNDP did not
contact Inner City Press for comment before distributing its press release, and
only provided the subject of its statement with a copy six hours after it
was released.
UNDP's
Kemal Dervis, at left - holding secret audits?
UNDP has an important role,
including enabling development to benefit poor people. It is therefore important
that UNDP be transparent, both in its finances and its hiring and promotion
practices. UNDP often preaches to the governments of developing countries that
they must become more transparent. For example, only last week Neil Buhne,
UNPD's representative in Bulgaria and previously Belarus, preached in Sofia on
the topic of transparent administrative services, saying that a lack of
transparency can
intensity existing inequalities.
But this preaching must be applied all the more to UNDP itself. It is
particularly inappropriate for UNDP to now say that it will not release its
audits of its spending, nor comment on seeming violations of its own stated
rules against cronyism and sham competition in hiring and promotion.
There are many, many serious and
well-meaning people within UNDP. Some of them clearly see a need for
improvements in how UNDP is run, and feel the threat of retaliation if they make
their views known in a way in which their supervisors and other high UNDP
officials could identify them. For this reason, Inner City Press has been
willing where necessary to use anonymous sources in the course of this series.
Inner City Press follows accepted rules of journalism, explaining the reasons
for which a source has requested anonymity. As one employee said, "You will not
get any on the record sources on this story. But everyone in this workplace
knows this is true."
This last quote was concerned
widely-alleged sexual harassment by an individual whom UNDP selected to head up
its entire Europe and CIS States operation. It is time, then, to explain why
Inner City Press in this series has at time mentioned sexual harassment. While
this has provided a pretext for UNDP's Communications Office, and also former
UNDP Administrator, to try to portray the entire series as salacious and as a
violation of privacy, this aspect of harassment is integral to the story. First,
the incidents took place in the workplace. But also, the fact that the incidents
were allow to go on for so long, due to connections to high officials of the UN
and rich UN supporters, shows inappropriate favoritism and lawlessness within
this organization which so impacts the world's poor.
A UN source generally respected by Inner
City Press has explained that the UN is "like a village," leading to upset at
overly-personal investigative reporting. This village analogy seems apt, not
only among the press corps and members of Security Council members' missions,
but among the UN staff as a whole, for example in the Headquarters cafeteria, or
during this past summer's World Cup. There is another aspect, though: some of
the UN, particularly UNDP, is like a *feudal* village, in which a small group
and some courtiers who feel they are protected are left outside of
otherwise-applicable rules, and bristle if this is ever reported.
To do such reporting, one must be in
the village, but not entirely of it. UNDP has asked Inner City Press,
"Who is telling you these things?" But Inner City Press will not sell out its
sources. UNDP has demanded to speak with editors or, it would seem, corporate
owners amenable to pressure. It is a dynamic well sketched by one of the paragon
American journalists, I.F. Stone, and it is not a demand to which Inner City
Press will acquiesce.
UNDP, even after declaring that is will
not respond to questions about seeming violations of applicable rules on hiring
and promotion, has sent Inner City Press a ludicrous list of supposedly required
corrections. These include demands that a headline, "UNDP Spent $567,000 on a
Book to Praise Itself," be modified since it is UNDP's position that despite the
payments, the book is a work of independent scholarship. Perhaps UNDP deserves
this repetition of the argument. But reasonable minds can and do
disagree with UNDP.
We have waited to the near-end
of this column to sketch the history and motives of Inner City Press. First,
Inner City Press has long reported on and been immersed in community development
efforts. Among other things, Inner City Press has investigated and reported on
redlining by banks: their failure to lend fairly to low income people. In
connection with this reporting, Inner City Press vindicated the rights to
information of the wider press corps, for example in a Freedom of Information
Act win in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, reported in the New
York Times earlier this year. Click
here for
a more detailed write-up by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Inner City Press' investigative series on
Citigroup, which like this series included reporting on the nitty-gritty of
employment practices, resulted in Citigroup being held accountable to its
overseer, the Federal Reserve Board, which imposed a fine of $75 million and
required detailed reforms. But where are the overseers of UNDP?
In its UN reporting, Inner City Press
most often focuses on human rights. In fact, Inner City Press' first stories on
UNDP involved the agency's funding of disarmament programs in Uganda, where
civilians have ended up killed in the name of disarmament, as now confirmed by
the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights. UNDP's Communications Office
repeatedly misstated and tried to downplay UNDP's enabling of the Ugandan
People's Defense Forces' disarmament programs, and despite having quietly
announced a suspension of funding in June, has most recently reverted to entire
denial. The issue will continue to be pursued so that it is not repeated.
To avoid any misunderstanding, which some
have tried to cause, that Inner City Press is part of the so-called vast right
wing conspiracy, we simply state that Inner City Press has most often be placed
in the public record on the left wing side of the equation. That does not mean
that lack of transparency and lack of accountability in programs to benefit to
the poor should be excused -- in fact, quite the contrary, in fact. That is the
motive and justification for this ongoing series.
Some have asked, why UNDP and
not (yet) other UN agencies. Only a few months ago, Inner City Press inquired
closely into the process for selecting Josette Sheeran Shiner as the new head of
the World Food Program. But the range of issues at UNDP, from a lack of
oversight on disarmament programs it funded in Uganda, to allowing its head of
European and CIS states to run wild (to choose only two examples), may indicate
that UNDP's amorphous mandate combined with a lack of transparency and of
independent press coverage have resulted a fiefdom whose only response to
questions is to attack the questioner. How
UNDP's December 8 press release
comports with the UN System's exhortations for journalistic freedom, or with
UNDP's own purported attempts to encourage governments in the developing world
to allow for media independence, remains to be seen.
Since we cannot resist further reporting,
we feel that the following UNDP staff email, the identity of whose sender we
will protect due to fear of retaliation, may show why we use anonymous sources
and why UNDP's arbitrary employment practices are a legitimate journalistic
subject. This extended quote precisely illustrated the reality of UNDP conduct
in connection with the Millennium Development Goals project.
Dear Matthew,
thanks for your recent coverage of UNDP HR policies. I would like to reconfirm
your information regarding the integration of the Millennium Project (MP) in
UNDP Bureau for Development Policy Poverty Group, directed by Nora Lustig.
The evidence
gathered in the adopted project document regarding Dr. Sachs' remuneration shows
that over 200,000 US Dollars are supposed to cover his services. I believe you
already have this document in your possession.
The problems
associated with the Millennium Project's integration go far beyond Dr. Sachs'
charity fees. Ms. Chandrika Bahadur and M. Guido Schmidt-Traub, who have been
working for the MP over the last years have benefited from the different
breaches of procedures during the merger. Their "new" positions with UNDP have
only been advertised for a week on a limited basis. There has not been a formal
panel interview process but a mere "desk review" of the different candidates.
Following that fast-track process, MM. Melkert and Gleeson recommended the
appointment of Ms. Bahadur and M. Schmidt-Traub as policy advisors and, for the
latter, head of the MDG support team. While both candidates show limited
professional and managerial experience, they have furthermore benefited from
promotions that are not linked with their background. Ms. Bahadur has been hired
as P4 though she does not have the minimum professional required for that level
(7 years). M Schmidt Traub has been appointed as P5 and head of MDG support team
though he has very limited managerial experience (this position involves
managing a team of 25 professional staff) no background in economics or
development (M. Schmidt Traub has a degree in Chemistry).... At the junior
level, some Research Associate staff do not even have master's degrees, which is
mandatory to be considered even for an internship.
Following
growing tensions among UNDP staff, M. Melkert, UNDP Associate Administrator, met
the extended Poverty group team on December 1. He took full responsibility for
the decisions made regarding the merger between the MP and the Poverty Group,
including HR management decisions. The Associate Administrator considers that it
is the role of UNDP's top management to make strategic decisions, including
breaking UNDP HR policies in the name of necessity and higher interests. This
approach is not acceptable within an international organization accountable to
member countries and publicly funded.
Hopefully
member states will take the opportunity of UNDP Executive Board meeting to ask
UNDP Senior management for clarification on these matters."
We share that final hope, and trust that
this series will play some small role in cleaning up UNDP, for the benefit of
the poor. And so this series will continue.
Here is / was UNDP's position on the
above-described:
From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 6:27 PM
Subject: RE: Additional Qs re UNDP, response to your Q re deadlines,
thank you in advance
Dear Matthew,
For the record, Jeffrey Sachs will continue to be involved with the UN’s
effort on the Millennium Development Goals. As of 1 January, he will
serve as Special Adviser to UNDP on the Millennium Development Goals.
His salary will continue to be $75,000 per year.... we have decided to merge the work of the
Millennium Project into UNDP. To this end, UNDP has set up a new
sub-unit in our poverty group, which will consist of some 20 positions.
To complete the integration by the end of the year, UNDP management is
using an expedited competitive recruiting process for five lead
positions. These five positions have been advertised and are in the
process of being filled.
Five other positions do not require a competitive process under UNDP
recruitment procedures and will be filled with people currently working
for the Millennium Project.
All other positions will be recruited according to standard UNDP
recruitment procedures, and this process is on-going.
and
then
In a message dated 12/8/2006 7:14:39 PM Eastern Standard Time,
cassandra.waldon@undp.org writes:
Dear Matthew,
UNDP is working to address the numerous questions you have asked us. As many of
your concerns touch upon similar kinds of issues we thought it might be helpful
if we were to state, for the record:
--That we will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about
UNDP’s recruitment and personnel practices. We urge you to desist from
publishing such allegations...
--That we do not release the reports of our internal audits and
investigations. The results of these reports are communicated on an annual basis
to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual Administrator’s report on
Internal Audit and Oversight...
In this, UNDP lags behind even
the rest of the UN System. Compare to Secretariat's Office of Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS), under General Assembly Resolution 59/272 of December 23, 2004:
--
OIOS provides a summary of all of its reports to all member states as
well as the general public in its annual reports; whereas UNDP only provides
a summary of its reports to the limited membership of its executive board (with
not even summaries provided to the general public).
-- OIOS makes some reports available as public documents; UNDP makes no reports
available to the general public.
-- OIOS makes all non-public reports available to all member states at
their request; UNDP makes only summaries (and not the full text of reports)
available to only 36 out of 192 member states.
This is not to say that the UN Secretariat is transparent enough -- rather, that
UNDP is even less transparency, despite its $5 billion a year budget.
Developing.
Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the
poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to
conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the
stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game
shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we
apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the
information, including but not limited to withheld internal audits, flowing.
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
As UN Speechifies, UNDP Audits Are Still Being
Withheld, While War in Somalia and Sudan, Pronk Blogs On
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN - 9th in a series
UNITED NATIONS, December 8 at 6 pm,
updated below -- With Kofi Annan's Special Representative Jan Pronk back in
Sudan for
what seems the final time, Annan's spokesman on Friday on noon continued
deflecting and stonewalling requests for simple information about an ally of
Mark Malloch Brown whom he had extensively
defended the
previous day. At five p.m. deadline UNDP informed Inner City Press by email that
an audit of fraud in UNDP's Russia office, responsive to a December 1 request,
would not be released. UNDP states that no such information, nor comments on
allegations of violations of UN hiring practices rules, will be released.
Less than an hour
later, Inner City Press found at the UN Spokesman's Office document counter a
press release by
UNDP, apparently placed there much earlier in the day, which makes a number of
claims. Click here
to view. Ironically, UNDP did not email a copy to Inner City Press, nor ask any
question for comment prior to its "publication." UNDP tries to argue that
individuals named in this series were not contacted prior to publication. In
fact, Inner City Press called the direct lines of Brian Gleeson, Nora Lustig,
Romesh Muttukumaru and others, as well as directly asking and attempting to ask
questions of
Kemal Dervis on Nov. 27
and
Mark Malloch Brown on December 4.
Mr. Dervis, the head of a $5 billion UN Program, has not held a press conference in
14 months. There is more that will be said, while not deviating from the
substance of this series on UNDP. This is merely an update a half-an-hour after
seeing strangely UNDP's blind side press release, just before the festive annual
ball of the UN Correspondents Association.
Earlier on Jan Pronk, the
spokesman said he wasn't sure if he was actually in-country. If the Dutch press
had it,
one might think that the UN would know. The Number Two on story 38,
however, is adverse or lacks knowledge about new media. He
called workplace
reporting
about UNDP "irresponsible" and its purveyor a "jerk." Then his spokesman loyally
sketched a scenario in which the "personal" material about Brian Gleeson would
come down, and apology be offered. Click
here for
the transcript. The material came down, in the spirit of diplomacy, and the
spokesman was so informed. Video
here,
at Minute 19:40. But the stonewalling continued.
Question: if at the direction of Mark
Malloch Brown the spokesman is so quick to trash a journalist with whom he
purports to joke, in robust defense of a friend of Mr. Brown, how can the
spokesman the next day refuse to answer any question about the Malloch friend?
It is hard to comprehend. Or it is the way that power work, in the late Annan-Brown
regime. Everything's genteel until the wrong toes are trodden on. Then the
gloves come off. The effect is to stonewall reporting on one of the UN's largest
programs. Despite its annual budget of $5 billion, UNDP Administrator Kemal
Dervis has been allowed to go 14 months without taking questions. Last week,
after the UN ruled that even a ritual Memorandum of Understanding signing with
the Islamic Development Bank couldn't be attended, an in-house photo came out.
Dervis with press kept at bay
Today Mr. Dervis is in
Vietnam, and so we continue our reporting, from a UNDP volunteer there, an
on-the-record source since UNDP cannot retaliate, at least not directly. Pierre
De Hanscutter was a computer / IT volunteer with UNDP in Vietnam. He states that
while there, he attended a meeting in which UNDP proposed to buy computer
equipment and services, from a company managed by the Vietnamese military,
TECAPRO, at costs up to 35 times the going rate. Pierre De Hanscutter has
provided a document, click
here to view
[which for now is blocked out by UNDP's Dec. 8
press release].
For example, he says, the purchase of a wireless router for $3500, when it
normally priced at $120. His immediate boss Bui Khanh Huong made these
arrangement, and Pierre De Hanscutter states that neither the top guy, Neil
Reece nor the middleman Koen Van Acoleyn did anything to stop it. Mr. Reece said
only that it would be good if it could be 10% cheaper.
Pierre De Hanscutter's check of UNDP
computer security found 15% of computers entirely unprotected, including that of
the office's director. After raising the over-paying and other irregularities
first to UNDP-Vietnam and then by letter to the UN in New York, Pierre De
Hanscutter says he was told to no longer work in the office. Now outside the
UNDP system, Pierre De Hanscutter has called for an investigation of UNDP in
Vietnam, including its relation with TECAPRO. Is Kemal Dervis there to
investigate? It doesn't sound like it. And so the questions mount, for his
belated December 18 presser.
Along with two questions posed with a five o'clock deadline (to be further
reported out and with the responses to follow in full), and December 6 questions
not even responded to, here was a question posed, and the response:
"responsive to earlier still-unanswered question,
please provide the investigative report on UNDP's Russian Federation office
referred to in the paragraph below, which is in the most recent audit of UNDP,
A/61/5/Add.1, at page 22:
"Potential fraud had been detected at the Russian
Federation office and reported to it for further investigation. The Office of
Audit and Performance Review performed an investigation and released its report
on 6 December, 2005. This report concluded that one payment amounting to
$190,000 was fraudulent. Additional payments that could be fraudulent were
under further investigation. Two former UNDP staff members were implicated in
the perpetration of those transactions (the former Assistant Resident
Representative for Operations, who resigned on 20 April, 2005, and a former
Project Administrator who resigned on 1 November, 2004). These cases were also
reported by the Administrator of UNDP to the authorities of the Russian
Federation on 15 September, 2005 for further action."
And please provide an update." On this the
following arrived,
twenty minutes after deadline, thus confined to later in this report:
-
From: [CW at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: RE: deadline today 5 p.m.
...we are still working to provide
you with a response to your 1 December question on our Russia Country
Office (you asked about "any and all investigations undertaken in the
past 10 years", not just about the 2005 investigation). In response to
your above request for the 2005 investigation report, please note that
we do not release the reports of our internal audits and investigations.
The results of these reports, however, are communicated on an annual
basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of an annual
Administrator’s report on Internal Audit and Oversight (this is the
longer document that contains the text you have pasted above). The
reports of UNDP’s external auditors are available at
http://www.unsystem.org/auditors/.
How convenient, this non-release of
"the reports of [UNDP] internal audits and
investigations." We'll have more on this shortly, including once at least some
of the December 6 UNDP questions are answered.
Update of 7:25 p.m. -- More than six
hours after UNDP published its naming-names press release, UNDP finally sent
Inner City Press a copy, along with a reiteration of the above with a new
promise to be even less transparent:
Subject: Your UNDP queries
From: cassandra.waldon [at] undp.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 7:13 PM
UNDP is working to address the numerous
questions you have asked us. As many of your concerns touch upon similar
kinds of issues we thought it might be helpful if we were to state, for the
record:
That we do not release the reports of our
internal audits and investigations. The results of these reports are
communicated on an annual basis to the UNDP Executive Board in the form of
an annual Administrator’s report on Internal Audit and Oversight, which we
believe you already have. The reports of UNDP’s external audits are
available at
http://www.unsystem.org/auditors/.
That we will no longer be responding
to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP’s recruitment and personnel
practices. We urge you to desist from publishing such allegations, however,
as doing so can harm the reputations and be personally hurtful to innocent
colleagues. As previously communicated to you, UNDP has in place checks and
balances to ensure transparency, and mechanisms to allow staff to air their
concerns. We also have effective mechanisms for redressing legitimate
grievances. Like any organization, we of course could undoubtedly do better.
But our 2005 Global Staff Survey indicates that morale at UNDP is at the
highest level since the survey began in 1999, with 74 per cent of staff
saying they would recommend UNDP as a good place to work.
Finally, kindly find attached a statement that
we issued today.
Regards,
Cassandra Waldon
"Finally" is right - it was
six hours after UNDP distributed the press release. The statement that UNDP
"will no longer be responding to unsubstantiated allegations about UNDP’s
recruitment and personnel practices" means, for example, that questions
about violations of the UN System's stated hiring practices will simply not
be answered by UNDP. Perhaps UNDP sees an opportunity, in the time
Secretary-General transition with some key Under-Secretaries General already
gone, to declare independence from transparency, the press and the public.
We'll see.
By contrast, fast answers were
provided Friday on Sudan and Somalia -- the sides should talk, always a fine
thing to say -- and a speech made up on the Congo. Video
here,
from Minute 14:20. On Somalia, the spokesman said he hadn't seen reporters of
increased shelling by Ethiopia (click
here
for one) and of Uganda chomping at the bit to send troops against the Islamic
Courts Union. "The S-G would call on those who send troops to reach out to all
Somalis," the spokesman speechified. Great. Meanwhile what has the UN's envoy
Francois Lonseny Fall been doing? He's been to Mogadishu once. And the requested
list of the UN's partners in Mogadishu? It has still not been provided, nor a
simple list that was promised days ago. This regime is just playing out the
string. And the gangsters, in the tent and out, seem to sense it...
Update of 7 p.m. -- Less than an hour
after this article was published, and less than two after the emailed response
above, Inner City Press found at the UN Spokesman's Office document counter a
press release by UNDP, apparently placed there much earlier in the day, which
makes a number of claims. Ironically, UNDP did not email a copy to Inner City
Press, nor ask any question for comment prior to its "publication." UNDP tries
to argue that individuals named in this series were not contacted prior to
publication. In fact, Inner City Press called the direct lines of Brian Gleeson,
Nora Lustig, Romesh Muttukumaru and others, as well as directly asking and attempting
to ask questions of
Kemal Dervis on Nov. 27
and
Mark Malloch Brown on December 4.
Mr. Dervis, the head of a $5 billion UN Program, has not held a press conference in
UN Headquarters in
14 months. There is more that will be said, while not deviating from the
substance of this series on UNDP. This is merely an update a half-an-hour after
seeing strangely UNDP's blind side press release, just before the festive annual
ball of the UN Correspondents Association.
Waste, Fraud and Abuse at UNDP in Vietnam, While UN
Secretariat Urges Censorship
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN - 8th in a series
UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- As
information continues flowing in following the increasingly mysterious job-shift
of the UN Development Program's head of Human Resources Brian Gleeson on
November 29, the picture of UNDP is become more detailed, in this interim
installment with the on-the-record account of a Belgian volunteer with UNDP in
Vietnam. Kemal Dervis, the UNDP Administrator who has not held a press
conference in New York in 14 months, is right now in Vietnam speaking of "One
UN," triggering this story.
Monday,
Inner City Press
covered the plea
of a local staffer in UNDP Vietnam, who expressed fear at being retaliated
against. Today's correspondent does not have this concern. The picture he paints
is below. If UNDP or its ex-Administrator have any response, it too would be
published in full. As evidenced at Thursday's UN noon briefing by the
Secretariat's
spokesman's lengthy lecture about
alleged (Inner City) Press defamation of high UN officials, some thing or things
in the first seven installments of this series appear to have hit a nerve. As
noted in Inner City Press' non-UNDP article today, click
here to view, such
despots as in Congo - Brazzaville charge their critics with defamation. One
might have thought the UN was different. But as the old saw has it, power can
corrupt.
That said, in order to keep
the focus on the subject of this series, UNDP, Inner City Press has made
modifications to earlier installments in this series, removing details that the
Secretariat's spokesman on December 7 said had been the basis for the December 4
comments of the Deputy Secretary-General, ex-Administrator of UNDP. Inner City
Press went so far as to excise a paragraph which it reported after the Deputy
Secretary General's comments, to avoid further obfuscation. Additionally,
because it was requested, Inner City Press has re-inserted into earlier articles
the spokesman's November 30 statement that "Mr. Mark Malloch Brown played no
role in Mr. Gleason’s transfer from one job to another," and a UNDP denial of
favoritism in hiring at UNDP-Vietnam, appended to our first Vietnam story, click
here to
view.
First this bit of reporting, which like
the below does not require pre-publication vetting by UNDP: on Thursday morning
Inner City Press interviewed Joakim Stymne, who has been Sweden's State
Secretary for International Development Cooperation for only six weeks now.
Inner City Press asked Joakim Stymne for Sweden's thinking on the UNDP Program
having funded disarmament in Karamoja, which programs veered into attacks upon
civilians, and having spent over $500,000 in core funds to publish the laudatory
book, "UNDP: A Better Way?" Mr. Stymne opined that such expenditures should be
closely examined, to see if they are within the strategy and within the budget.
Afterwards one of Mr. Stymne staffers said it was good that the UNDP vanity
press issue had been raised. Outside, 46 stories down and across the shining
East River, the tenements streets of Central Brooklyn were gleaming.
For those interested in numbers -- and we
are, as you'll soon see -- the Swedish mission disclosed that at an exchange
rate of seven kroner to the dollar, Sweden annually gives UNDP 1.3 billion
kroner, 800 million of which constitute core funding. UNDP takes over
one-quarter of Sweden's total funding to the UN System. How such funding is used
is a question for another day, quite soon.
Vietnam:
compare and contrast
We turn now to Vietnam, and present as we
will continue to do a voice from the field, one that this time can speak freely,
without fear of retaliation:
Subject: UNDP
Vietnam
From: Pierre De
Hanscutter
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Sent: Thu, 7
Dec 2006 1:44 PM
Dear Mr. Matthew Russell Lee,
I read with a lot of interest your
article about UNDP Vietnam.
I was working there during two years with UN Volunteers (until July 2006), and I
hear and saw many stories like those that you published. When I was in UNDP
Vietnam I discovered a case of corruption (the IT manager, [ ], senior manager
under the direct supervision of Mr. Neill Reece-Evans), I wrote a report to Neil
Reece-Evans and spoke about this problem many time to my UNV supervisor Mr. Koen
Van Acoleyen.... The only answer that I got was that I don't understand the
"global politics," "it is not my business" and "you can do nothing against
UN"... It was quite
funny to hear that from people who want to promote a better citizenship and to
fight against corruption... From this report saying that I believe that
corruption, even internal, is not acceptable, I got only troubles and
everything has been done to push me out during two years. At the end, they even
cut my telephone line, internet connection and my office... I am sure that if I
didn't give a copy of this report to my embassy, I was immediately out of UNDP
without any explanation.
When I came
back I decided to send a report to New York with a copy of the document that I
had. They took it seriously and they decided to organize an audit inside UNDP.
At the beginning, I had contacts with the person responsible for this audit who
called me few times. One day he told me that he found that more or less 100 % of
Microsoft software installed at UNDP were illegal copies (but UNDP has no
problem advising the Vietnamese authorities that they should fight against
illegal software copies) and few days after that, the information became
"confidential". I never got any result about this audit.... I joined UNDP
because I believed in the "official" goals of this organization... Big
illusion.... Very often, I think that I did a mistake by writing this report.
The right attitude in UNDP is to meet the guy that you accuse and to ask a
percentage...
I will give you
a copy of this report that I sent to New York, it is in French. But you can
easily understand the problem with the document that I got one day during a
working meeting [Note: both to be re-purposed by Inner City Press, watch this
site.]
Beside this
corruption problem, each year the UNDP staff goes to "retreat" for "team
building" on the beach for few days. The years where I was there, each time it
was in very luxurious hostel (4 stars) so far from Hanoi that all the staff had
to take plane (a few planes had to be booked!). And because these
"holiday-retreats" were so far from the normal working place, each employee has
to receive pocket (to have good time). In few days, UNDP spends more that one
month of their average salary...
Another day, to
inaugurate a new balcony on the roof UNDP buildings, UNDP organized a private
fashion show inside the office. Until now, I am wondering what was doing these
young models and this fashion show in the office of a development
organization....
It could be
also interesting for you to study the difference of salary between local and
international staffs. In my case my salary was around 2000 euro / month but for
a Vietnamese (speaking Vietnamese and knowing his county) doing the same job and
with the same qualification it is around 350$. Why so big difference? You can
easily imagine the atmosphere in the office at lunch time: Vietnamese staff
eating in front of their computers and the internationals going to restaurants
(it is 'so cheap' only 5 $).... One day, I asked why there is a so big
difference between the local and international staff and someone told that it is
because "everything is more expensive when you are foreigner".... Maybe the
first months.... But when I asked if when the Vietnamese people go to work in
New York or Geneva, if they also receive a salary six times bigger that the
local people (they are foreigners, everything is also more expensive for
them...), the answer was "it is not the same"....
UNDP complains about companies moving to developing countries only to get cheap
and flexible workers... but they do the same....The salary are done for
Occidental people and to have cheap local employees doing the real work....
When I had
these problems, I suddenly realize that you can do nothing.... only to smile and
to accept your situation... If not, they will destroy you... - Pierre De
Hanscutter
On the topic of audits never provided, on
Thursday Inner City Press against asked, this time the General Assembly
spokeswoman, for UNDP's report on fraud in the UNDP Russian Federation Office,
which the most recent audit of UNDP refers to. We have much (more) to report
about this Office, but will await receiving the documents and comments on
incidents in this office, which have been requested from UNDP. Developing.
Again, because a number of Inner City Press' UNDP sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the
poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to
conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the
stated goals of UNDP and many of its staff. As they used to say on TV game
shows, keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we
apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the
information flowing.
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
At the UN,
Indigenous Rights Get Deferred, As U.S. Abstains, Deftly or Deceptively
At the UN,
Threat and Possible Statement on Fiji Spotlights Selection and Payment
of UN Peacekeepers
At the UN, China
and Islamic Dev't Bank Oppose Soros and World Bank On How to Fight
Poverty
At the UN,
Misdirection on Somalia and Myanmar, No Answers from UNDP's Kemal Dervis
UNDP Dodges
Questions of Disarmament Abuse in Uganda and of Loss of Togo AIDS Grant,
Dhaka Snafu
At the UN, The
Swan Song of Jan Egeland and the Third Committee Loop, Somalia Echoes
Congo
UN Silent As
Protesters Tear Gassed in Ivory Coast, As UNMOVIC Plods On and War
Spreads in Somalia
In the UN,
Uzbekistan Gets a Pass on Human Rights As Opposition to U.S. Grows and
War's On in Somalia
At the UN,
Cluster Bombs Unremembered, Uighurs Disappeared and Jay-Z Returns with
Water -- for Life
From the UN,
Silence on War Crimes Enforcement and Conflicts of Interest on Complaint
from Bahrain
En Route to
Deutsche Bank, the UN's Door Revolves, While Ban Ki-moon Arrives and
Moldova Spins
As Two UN
Peacekeepers Are Killed, UN Says Haiti's Improving, Ban Ki-moon on
Zimbabwe?
Nagorno-Karabakh President Disputes Fires and Numbers, Oil and UN, in
Exclusive Interview with Inner City Press
Inside the UN,
Blaming Uganda's Victims, Excusing Annan on Mugabe, and U.S. Blocked
Darfur Trip
U.S. Blocked
Council's Trip to Darfur Meeting, Brazzaville Envoy Explains After U.S.
Casts a Veto
At the UN,
Council Works Overtime To Cancel Its Trip About Darfur, While DC Muses
on John Bolton
UN Panel's
"Coherence" Plan Urges More Power to UNDP, Despite Its Silence on Human
Rights
On Water, UNDP
Talks Human Rights, While Enabling Violations in Africa and Asia, With
Shell and Coca-Cola
Will UN's
Revolving Door Keep Human Rights Lost, Like Bush's Call and WFP
Confirmation Questions?
On Somalia,
We Are All Ill-Informed, Says the UN, Same on Uganda, Lurching Toward
UNDP Power Grab
On WFP, Annan and
Ban Ki-Moon Hear and See No Evil, While Resume of Josette Sheeran Shiner
Is Edited
Would Moon
Followers Trail Josette Sheeran Shiner into WFP, As to U.S. State Dep't?
At the UN,
Positions Are Up For the Grabbing, Sun's Silence on Censorship, Advisor
Grabs for Gun
In WFP Race,
Josette Sheeran Shiner Praises Mega Corporations from Cornfield While
State Spins
At the UN,
Housing Subsidy Spin, Puntland Mysteries of UNDP and the Panama Solution
In Campaign to
Head UN WFP, A Race to Precedents' Depths, A Murky Lame Duck Appointment
At the UN,
Gbagbo and his Gbaggage, Toxic Waste and Congolese Sanctions
WFP Brochure-Gate? John Bolton Has Not Seen Brochure
of "Official" U.S. Candidate to Head World Food Program
Ivory Coast
Stand-Off Shows Security Council Fault Lines: News Analysis
At the UN,
It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and
Flaunting of the Law
"Official" U.S.
Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff
Rules Ignored
Senegal's
President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of
Two Lamines
A Tale of Two
Americans Vying to Head the World Food Program, Banbury and Sheeran
Shiner
At the UN, the Unrepentant Blogger Pronk, a Wink
on 14 North Korean Days and Silence on Somalia
At the UN,
Literacy Losses in Chad, Blogless Pronk and Toothless Iran Resolution,
How Our World Turns
Sudan Pans Pronk
While Praising Natsios, UN Silent on Haiti and WFP, Ivorian Fingers
Crossed
UN Shy on North
Korea, Effusive on Bird Flu and Torture, UNDP Cyprus Runaround, Pronk is
Summoned Home
At the UN,
Silence from UNDP on Cyprus, from France on the Chad-Bomb, Jan Pronk's
Sudan Blog
Russia's Vostok
Battalion in Lebanon Despite Resolution 1701, Assembly Stays Deadlocked
and UNDP Stays Missing
As
Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works
With the Niyazov Regime
At the UN,
Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a
Documentary Footnote
With All Eyes
on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo
Conflagration
As Venezuela and
Guatemala Square Off, Dominicans In Default and F.C. Barcelona De-Listed
At the UN, North
Korea Sanctions Agreed On, Naval Searches and Murky Weapons Sales
At the UN,
Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas
Denied by the U.S.
At the UN,
Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of
Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems
At the UN,
Annan's Africa Advisor Welcome Chinese Investment, Dodges Zimbabwe, Nods
to Darfur
At the UN,
Richard Goldstone Presses Enforcement on Joseph Kony, Reflecting Back on
Karadzic
UN Defers on
Anti-Terror Safeguards to Member States, Even in Pakistan and Somalia
Afghanistan
as Black Hole for Info and Torture Tales, Photos and Talk Mogadishu, the
UN Afterhours
Amid UN's Korean
Uproar, Russia Silent on Murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya Exposer
UN Envoy Makes
Excuses for Gambian Strongman, Whitewashing Fraud- and Threat-Filled
Election
Sudan's UN
Envoy Admits Right to Intervene in Rwanda, UNICEF Response on Terrorist
Groups in Pakistan
At the UN, As
Next S-G is Chosen, Annan Claims Power to Make 5-Year Appointments,
Quiet Filing and Ivory Coast Concessions
Chaos in UN's
Somalia Policy, Working With Islamists Under Sanctions While Meeting
with Private Military Contractors
U.S. Candidate
for UN's World Food Program May Get Lame Duck Appointment, Despite
Korean Issues
At the
UN, U.S. Versus Axis of Airport, While Serge Brammertz Measures
Non-Lebanese Teeth
Exclusion from
Water Is Called Progress, of Straw Polls and WFP Succession
William Swing
Sings Songs of Congo's Crisis, No Safeguards on Coltan Says Chairman of
Intel
Warlord in the
Waldorf and Other Congo Questions Dodged by the UN in the Time Between
Elections
In Some New
Orleans, Questions Echo from the South Bronx and South Lebanon
In New Orleans,
While Bone Is Thrown in Superdome, Parishes Still In Distress
At the UN, Tales
of Media Muzzled in Yemen, Penned in at the Waldorf on Darfur, While
Copters Grounded
US's Frazer
Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of
Buying Leaders -
Click
here for
video file by Inner City Press.
Third Day of UN
General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and
Montenegro and Still Somalia
On Darfur, Hugo
Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil
Refinery
At the UN, Ivory
Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of
Somalia
Evo Morales
Blames Strike on Mobbed-Up Parasites, Sings Praise of Coca Leaf and Jabs
at Coca-Cola
Musharraf Says
Unrest in Baluchistan Is Waning, While Dodging Question on Restoring
Civilian Rule
At the UN, Cyprus
Confirms 'Paramilitary' Investigation, Denies Connection to Def Min
Resignation, CBTB Update
A Tale
of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN
UN Round-up:
Poland's President Says Iraq Is Ever-More Tense While Amb. Bolton Talks
Burmese Drugs, Spin on Ivory Coast
As UN's Annan
Now Says He Will Disclose, When and Whether It Will Be to the Public and
Why It Took So Long Go Unasked
At the UN,
Stonewalling Continues on Financial Disclosure and Letter(s) U.S.
Mission Has, While Zimbabwe Goes Ignored
At the UN,
Financial Disclosure Are Withheld While Freedom of Information Is
Promised, Of Hollywood and Dictators' Gift Shops
UN's Annan Says
Dig Into Toxic Dumping, While Declining to Discuss Financial Disclosure
A Still-Unnamed
Senior UN Official in NY Takes Free Housing from His Government,
Contrary to UN Staff Regulations
UN Admits To
Errors in its Report on Destruction of Congolese Village of Kazana,
Safeguards Not In Place
As UN Checks
Toxins in Abidjan, the Dumper Trafigura Figured in Oil for Food Scandal,
Funded by RBS and BNP Paribas
Targeting of
African Americans For High Cost Mortgages Grew Worse in 2005, While Fed
Downplays Its Own Findings
The UN and
Nagorno-Karabakh: Flurries of Activity Leave Frozen Conflicts Unchanged;
Updates on Gaza, Gavels and Gbagbo
The UN Cries
Poor on Lawless Somalia, While Its Ex-Security Chief Does Business
Through Ruleless Revolving Door
At the UN,
Micro-States Simmer Under the Assembly's Surface, While Incoming Council
President Dodges Most Questions
"Horror Struck"
is How UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments Would Leave
U.S., Referral on Burma But Not Uzbekistan
Security Council
President Condemns UN Officials Getting Free Housing from Governments,
While UK "Doesn't Do It Any More"
At the UN,
Incomplete Reforms Allow for Gifts of Free Housing to UN Officials by
Member States
Rare UN Sunshine
From If Not In Chad While Blind on Somalia and Zimbabwe, UNDP With Shell
in its Ear on Nigeria
Annan Family
Ties With Purchaser from Compass, Embroiled in UN Scandal, Raise
Unanswered Ethical Questions
At the UN, from
Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovars to Lezgines, Micro-States as
Powerful's Playthings
Inquiry Into
Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As
Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond
On the UN -
Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost
Stop Bank
Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says,
Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger
Ship-Breakers
Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest
UNIFIL Troop Donor
With Somalia on
the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion
In UN's Lebanon
Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL,
Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"
UN Decries
Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates
on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message
On Lebanon,
Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes
Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening
Africa Can Solve
Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace
Talks and Kofi Annan's Views
At the UN, Jay-Z
Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka
Kilcher in the Basement
In the UN
Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a
Shebaa Farms Solution?
UN Knew of Child
Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN
Facilitated
Impunity's in
the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for
Kazana
UN Still Silent
on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin
UN's Guehenno
Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues
With Congo
Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is
Distracted
In DR Congo, UN
Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper
Spinning the
Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese
Army
At the UN, Dow
Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended
Kofi Annan
Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers
UN Silent As
Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News
Analysis
UN's Guehenno
Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower
Profile Zones
In Gaza Power
Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN
Sources
UN's Corporate
Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and
UNDP Continues
BTC Briefing,
Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations
Conflicts of
Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts
UN Grapples with
Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without
Explanation
UN Gives Mugabe
Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned
At the UN,
Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe
UN Acknowledges
Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions
In Uganda, UNDP
to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and
see
The New Vision,
offsite).
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending
Disarmament
Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance
Alleged Abuse in
Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given:
What Did UN Know and When?
Strong Arm on
Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of
Karamojong Villages
UN's Selective
Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs
UN Habitat
Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at
Vancouver World Urban Forum?
UN's Annan
Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants
Freedom of Information
UN Waffles on
Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from
Algiers
UN & US,
Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty
and Senator Tom Coburn
Human Rights
Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News
Analysis
In Praise of
Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial
Exclusion
UN Sees Somalia
Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and
Everything But Congo
Corporate Spin on
AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence
The Silence of
the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank
Human Rights
Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins
from SUVs
Child Labor and
Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu
Press Freedom?
Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security
Council
The
Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens
Background Checks
at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from
Turkmenbashi's Single Book
Ripped Off Worse
in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in
Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds
Burundi: Chaos at
Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated
by Forty Until 4 AM
The Chadian
Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the
Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come
Through the UN's
One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations,
Even Nuclear Areva
Racial
Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks
Mine Your Own
Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the
Paparazzi
Human Rights Are
Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still
Murky
Iraq's Oil to be
Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear
Kofi, Kony,
Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala
As Operation
Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if
Iraq's Oil is Being Metered
Cash Crop: In
Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in
their Camps
The Shorted and
Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't
Add Up
UN Reform:
Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance
Contract
In the Sudanese
Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says
Empty Words on
Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia
What is the Sound
of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War
at UN
Kosovo: Of
Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
Other Inner City Press
reports are available in the ProQuest service and some are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.com --
Copyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540